JC Penney's board ousted CEO Ron Johnson today and replaced him with his predecessor, Mike Ullman.
Johnson, a former Apple exec, took over the struggling retailer's leadership 17 months ago and installed an ambitious rebranding strategy that didn't take with consumers. He called for a new logo, revamped the brand's department stores and dramatically cut back on its signature clearance sales—the latter two moves, however, were never tested in a subset of JC Penney's 1,100 locations.
Sales plummeted; the firm's market cap fell from $6.8 billion to roughly $3.5 billion under Johnson's leadership.
Now, Ullman—who ran the Plano, Texas-based company from 2004 through 2011—is back in charge.
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